Ron Boyles, and perhaps the most interesting television commercial ever produced on Prince Edward Island...

In honour of our friend Ron Boyles, who died earlier this week, here’s a television ad, produced by my longtime friend and former business partner David Moses, that ran on the CBC in the mid 1990s. It was an ad most remarkable for the fact that despite having seen in dozens of times, it was only years later that I realized it was an ad for Boyles Optical, Ron’s family business.

To this day I have no idea whatsoever how David managed to convince Ron that producing a minute-long noir drama set in abandoned buildings down by the docks was exactly what his optical business needed.  But he did. And it aired. And Ron had a story to tell for years after. It is, I think, the most interesting television commercial ever to air on the Island.

And that tells you a little something about Ron that might get lost in all the talk about his status as a gruff but legendary golfer. Which is not to say that Ron couldn’t be gruff or that he wasn’t legendary. But he was a complex man, not so easily summed up, and, despite being perhaps as far to the opposite end of almost any spectrum you can name from Ron, I always had a soft spot in my heart for him.

Thanks to Beryl and Jason at Moses Media for digging into the company video vault.

Ron’s funeral service will be held tomorrow, Friday, August 14, 2014, at 3:00 p.m. at Spring Park United Church in Charlottetown with visitation following until 6:00 p.m.

Our thoughts this week are with Carol and their children and grandchildren; Ron will be missed by many.